Month: December 2024

December, 2024.

A Clarification

A friend sent me an e-mail saying he was amazed we drove our motorhome across the Going to the Sun Road. We did not, we drove the pickup. And even that seemed almost too big on some sections of the road. We should have taken the Red Bus.

We did see a long 5th wheel on a narrow road going towards Many Glacier where he should not have been. He was trying to turn around. No shoulders. He had the 5th wheel perpendicular to the road hanging way over not much of anything and the pickup truck aimed the wrong way. We took an alternate route.

Fort Stevens State Park

We have been to Fort Stevens State Park in Oregon before. It is a large park, with several hundred campsites. It is west of Astoria, south of the mouth of the Columbia River, and near the Pacific Coast. Surprisingly, maybe not, it has no laundry. But there is a KOA across the street from the entrance that has a laundry open to all.

There are historic forts here from as far back as the Civil War and up to World War II. Fort Stevens was shelled by a Japanese submarine in the only attack of its kind on mainland USA.

There is a rusting shipwreck on the beach. And there is access to the beach where you can drive down to the beach and drive along the coast on the sand.

And there are pretty good trails for hiking and biking too.

Check out our Blog from the last time we were here.

https://home2rv.com/2017/10/18/fort-stevens-state-park-oregon-summer-2017/

The State Park is just a couple of miles from Warrenton where there is a Costco, a Home Depot, lots of fast food places and other dining choices, and other shopping opportunities.

Not far away is Astoria where there is a very nice Coast Guard museum. The Coast Guard here is famous for saving people who get trapped in the currents and storms at the mouth of the Columbia River.

There is a Canning Factory Museum to celebrate and remember the fishing industry on the Oregon Coast and the Columbia River. It is worth a visit.

The River and Bar Pilots are stationed here too. All ships coming into the Columbia River from the Pacific Ocean, crossing the bar, they call it, and exiting from the Columbia to the Pacific are guided by Pilots who have to transfer from small Pilot Guide boats to the ships, sometimes in terrible weather and sea conditions. All of the ships heading upriver have to have a River Pilot as well.

The Bar Pilots are ferried to and from the ships in small boats from which the pilots transfer to the ship.

When the seas are too rough to transfer by boat they will use a helicopter. Either way, it is a tough, important job.

Big cruise ships have a port in Astoria. There are much smaller cruise ships like National Geographic Venture that go to Alaska with only 100 passengers or so. Maybe more my style./

There are also river cruise boats that head upriver towards Umatilla and beyond and bus people to Pendleton.

And of course, there are dozens of really great spots for lunch or dinner and maybe even for that shopping experience you have been craving.

We enjoyed our short but busy time at Ft Stevens. It is a nice stop, the beaches are nice, Astoria is interesting, and there is plenty of Lewis and Clark history in the area as well as the historical aspect of Ft Stevens. If you are going this way the State Park is a good choice.

Our friends from San Diego, Richard, and Betty were delayed a couple of days so rather than meeting them at Ft Stevens as planned we met them at out next stop, Nehalem Bay State Park.

Nehalem Bay State Park

We arrived at Nehalem Bay State Park after an hour’s drive down a twisty, windy 101 from Ft Stevens.

We like Nehalem Bay State Park. It has a couple of hundred campsites with water and 50 amp electric. You have to drive up to the entrance area to dump your waste tanks. There are maybe two dozen Yurts (tent cabins). And like Ft Stevens, no laundry and no store.

That is us in the foreground and Richard and Betty in the tan coach in the next site. Our DirecTV dish worked where we were. In Richard and Betty’s site the trees were in the way. But our StarLink was working well so we shared our WiFi with them while we were there and they learned the basics of streaming.

The State Park is just south of the small town of Manzanita, OR whose permanent population of about 600 swells to a few thousand with summer visitors. It is close enough that you can walk or bike into town. They have a nice Farmer’s Market, a couple of grocery stores, hardware stores, a lumber yard, and lots of touristy-type stores. Quite a bit for a small town.

There is a Hot Dog stand that has been there for a long time. It started very simply as a way to earn money for a local charity. It is now a big deal, open most of the year, most days of the year. Mostly hot dogs but other lunch stuff too.

Mudd Dogs is a food experience.

Plain or all gussied up, your choice.

Betty Richard and I (Susan too) ate a dog. Don’t tell Maggie.

The Campground is along side of the beach separated by a long, narrow sand dune. So usually it is up and over the dune to the beach, there are a few places where the dune is very low or not there and you can just walk out to the beach.

Lots of trails up and over the dunes.

And more along the tops of the dunes. There were signs along the beach side with big numbers so you could find your way home.

The beach is several miles long from Manzanita south to the opening of Nehalem Bay. People ride horses on the beach, fly kites, kite surf and the hearty go swimming, play with the dogs, or just walk. Cars are not allowed on this stretch of beach. We mostly walked and played with the dogs.

You can go on a horse ride for hire. No takers in our group. It might have been fun.

The beach always seems windy. Maggie knows exactly what to do.

Dig holes, try to hide her toys, and snuggle in for a cool sand nap.

Keiko, Richard, and Betty’s Golden Doodle (they come in all colors and sizes) liked to explore more than dig.

Richard and Betty found a piece of driftwood, take it home maybe? Maybe not.

I tried some kite flying, plenty of wind.

Maggie and Susan kept a close watch.

When you’re on the Oregon coast, Dungeness Crab should be on the menu. Down near the mouth of Nehalem Bay, there is a crab fishery, marina, and campground called Kelly’s. We headed down there with my brother-in-law, Bruce, to buy a bucket of crab so Susan and I and Richard and Betty could go to my sister, Judy, and Bruce’s house for a crab dinner.

There are big tanks with live crabs of different sizes. We chose 4 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 pound crabs for the six of us. They cook them right at the marina and then put them in ice water for a couple of minutes and then clean them. It takes about twenty minutes.

Susan and Bruce waited patiently in the sun.

The ready-to-eat crabs are packed in ice for the short trip to my sister’s for dinner. Everybody brought something so there was plenty to eat. Oh Yum

Judy and Bruce’s grand daughter, Victoria, and her son, Ryan joined us. Bowls full of food, empty bowls for the crab shells, and we were ready to eat. So we did.

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We had a really nice time with Richard and Betty, it took a while to make it happen and we will try to do it again. One of the best parts of the RV lifestyle is the people you meet, the friends you make, and the memories you make together.

And it was nice to see Judy and Bruce again. It was quite a while since we were last out that way. We had planned on a trip the summer of Covid but that didn’t happen. And we were glad to help them sell their RV. They had fun with it while they had it and it went to a good new home,

So now we start heading to the East and home but all paths between here and home seem to lead to The Grand Teton National Park. At least for us.

Grand Teton National Park

This is a frequent stop for us. We really like a few days at the southern end of the Park at Gros Ventre Campground to get into the town of Jackson and some of the activities at that end of the park. The best place for us is at Colter Bay about 1/2 way from south to north along the east side of Jackson Lake.

There is a National Park campground, an RV campground, a tent cabin campground, and about a hundred log cabins for visitors to stay at. No lodge. We stayed in the RV campground.

The Colter Bay Village has a grocery store, a coffee shop, an ice cream place, a laundry, a pay shower facility, a post office, horseback riding stables, a gift shop, two restaurants, a Park Visitor’s Center with another nice Gift Shop, and a big marina.

Something for everyone. There are canoes, kayaks, and motorboats for rent at the marina as well as guided fishing trips and boat trips out to Elk Island and the far side of Jackson Lake.

And three very nice day hike trails that start and return you right back to the village.

And just 3 miles up the lake, Leek’s Marina is another smaller marina that is popular for its pizza, and rightly so. You could probably walk up there for a pie to go but walking back with one might attract a hungry bear.

We had a very nice spot in the RV Park. It is generally shady among the tall pine trees. The tall trees limit the use of a TV satellite dish. Our Starlink dish worked pretty well. We were pleased to see very good cell phone coverage here too. With that, we were also able to get internet access using our cellular hotspot.

The last time we were here workers were busy burying fiber optic cable from one end of the park to the other. We didn’t see any signs of cell phone towers so we figured it was just for the Park facilities. A Ranger told me there was a multi-vendor cell tower on a hill to the east of the RV Park. I looked hard and never found it but the cell coverage was very good.

We missed Ralph and Dorris Trotter from Illinois by one day. But we crossed paths with Rich and Peggy Bowman from Ohio while we were there. It was nice to see them again.

Maggie was staying at her first National Park here. While there are many places she can go with us on a leash there are maybe more where she could not. The park rules about pets have changed since we were here with our first dog, Xenia, in 1980. Now she couldn’t go on any trails or the beach. That disappointed us, we were hoping she could go for a swim. But is makes sense, one afternoon on the beach part of it was closed while Park Rangers and Wildlife experts were “hazing” a bear to move north (towards Leek’s Marina!) This was probably the same bear that had walked though the campground right in front of our coach just the day before.

Lake Jackson is a stunning place to spend a later part of the afternoon. The lake is usually calm, people come and go swimming (it is quite cold), and just sit and watch the light on the mountains change in the late day.

On the far side of the lake, there is very little land, the face of the mountains just comes right down into the lake. The mountains and the valley were formed along a fault line, the mountains rose and the valley floor sunk. Jackson Lake is right over the fault line. It is 15 miles long, 7 miles wide, and almost 500 ft deep.

The beach is not sand, it is gravel, about 1 inch in size. But just fine to plant our chairs and watch whatever happens.

Not everyone got the “No Bikes on the Beach” message. Maybe since this fellow’s two-wheeled machine had no pedals he got some dispensation. He was having a lot of fun going as fast as his little feet would go.

The lake beckons, you just have to go test the temperature, take off your shoes and socks, and get wet. It was surprisingly not as cold as I expected.

The weird thing is that once you walk in you would think it would be pretty solid. But like when you walk in on a sandy beach the sand gives way and your feet sink in, this almost seemed more of that. The gravel moved, and my footing seemed unstable, the more I moved the more the gravel gave way. I wasn’t going swimming so I didn’t wait very long to see the final result of the unsteady footing. But I did get into the water at Jackson Lake.

It snowed while we were there in the higher elevations. The Grand Teton at more than 13,000 ft is south and across the lake from Colter Bay had a light coating of now.

The snow filled in an area on the north face of Mount Moran that looked very much like Minnesota.

And on those special days when the cloud layers are just right and you happen to be looking, the late afternoon western sunlight floods down the glacier cut valleys on the far side of the lake. It is pretty spectacular to see.

We have been to the Tetons many times over the past 50 years of RV travel. We have been on grueling horseback rides up and down the mountains in the rain, on backcountry trails where the bear stories from the previous night’s Ranger talk make you pretty wary, and on boat rides on Jenny Lake and Jackson Lake. We have seen some pretty amazing scenery and wildlife.

We have been closer to bears than we should have been. We have enjoyed the quiet times just seeing the mountains and the lakes, the families on the beach and in the picnic areas, and the walks through the campgrounds at the end of the day. We keep coming back to refresh, reinforce, and make new memories. The way we enjoy the Tetons has changed over time as have we and the Tetons. We have been to a great many National Parks. This is where we return.

More Later, Much Love,

Roger, Susan, and Maggie

December, 2024.

We drove down to the Boeing Museum one morning from Anacortes for an early afternoon tour. This time the one-hour trip took only an hour and a half, it was a Saturday.

The Boeing Museum was interesting. I thought we would see more historic Boeing planes, I guess there is another museum for that. This one was more about evolving technologies – aerospace, space, and manufacturing. No pictures allowed.

The Everett Plant Tour started in an auditorium with some discussion of what we would see and the rules: no pictures and no specific questions requiring proprietary answers.

The original plant was built to assemble 747 aircraft. We got on a bus for a short ride over to the assembly building where there are now 8 immense assembly bays. They are building 767 and 777 aircraft here now. The bus took us to the 7th assembly bay. We walked down a set of stairs, through an underground passageway, and up in elevators to an observation platform overlooking the assembly areas in bays 7 and 8.

In bay 8 they were working on the 777X, a new 777 with more new composite wings with folding wingtips so that it fits in existing airports and more efficient, bigger GE engines. With lighter-weight wings and more efficient engines, aircraft fuel consumption will go down by about 15%. This aircraft is going through the final certification process. Deliveries are scheduled for 2026. More than 500 have been sold.

In bay 7 they were assembling 767s. There were 6 aircraft in the bay at various stages. As I recall each aircraft spent 5 days being assembled.

The two ends of the aircraft started side by side with the nose and tail facing the same way at the near side of the bay at the left end. The cockpit in the front end and the equipment in the aft end started to get installed.

These move to the middle of the near side of the bay for more work.

Then these two sections move to the right end of the near side where the aft end is turned around so that the front and aft sections are lined up as one might expect. From somewhere else the horizontal and vertical tail surfaces are ferried in by overhead cranes which move from building to building. All of these tail parts are attached while the aircraft is in this section of the assembly bay.

They move those sections to the other side of the bay and a giant overhead crane brings in the center section from another building. Two big saddle frames hold the three sections together in alignment and robotic machines put in 8 rivets in a line across each joint about every two inches around the entire fuselage.

Then this assembled fuselage moves down to the middle of the opposite side. More big cranes bring in the wings (built-in another building where they just make wings). The wings are attached to each side of the fuselage. No one asked how many bolts. This is where the rest of the interior of the plane is installed.

And finally, the nearly complete aircraft moves to the left end of the opposite side of the bay where the fuselage and wings are lifted so that the landing gear and the engines can be installed. The landing gear goes up and down several times, all of the aircraft systems are tested. After five days a 767 is towed out of the assembly bay.

Think about it, there are 6 767 aircraft in this assembly bay (one of 8). These assembly bays are in one building that covers 5.5 million square feet, almost 100 acres. The building is 120 feet tall and encloses about 500 million cubic feet. These assembly bays could hold 75 NFL football fields. Big is the word and the plant continues to expand.

Once the plane is towed out of the assembly building it goes across a very heavy-duty bridge crossing Interstate 5 to one of three paint buildings and then on to a final assembly and testing facility where it gets more tests and final finishing touches.

Finally, Boeing test pilots fly each plane two or three times. The buyer’s test pilots fly it a couple of times and then when everyone is happy and the aircraft has been fueled, they have a delivery party, hand over the keys, and presumably some money, and the plane departs flown by the buyer’s flight crew.

Someone asked how much an airplane costs. The tour guide wouldn’t say exactly but said they cost about $1 million per seat. A common configuration for a 767 is 400 seats so about $400 million. But wait, that doesn’t include engines or seats. The 2 engines cost $42 million each and they usually buy 3, sometimes 4. Cheap seats are $5,000. The fancy seats that sell more tickets are closer to $10,000. So add in another $4 million for seats and $130 to $170 million for engines and spares and each plane is $530 to $570 million and change. It is like buying a car, everyone wants a deal. And deals get made so what the planes actually cost is anyone’s guess.

It was interesting to see the assembly line, hear the facts and details as far as they would tell us and just see the scale of it all. I wanted and hoped for more. What do you expect for a discounted senior ticket? ($33 each)

At the end of the tour like with all good museums, you are routed through the gift shop. We bought a few memorabilia things.

More Later, Much Love

Susan, Maggie, and Roger

December, 2024.

We met Richard and Betty Bark from San Diego, CA at a Foretravel Grandvention in Columbus, Indiana, ten years ago. We have stayed in touch and met for a week one year in the Black Hills of South Dakota and a few days at Quartzsite in Arizona. And a couple of times for just a day or two at a time as well.

We have been trying to find a place and time where we could get together for a couple of weeks. This year we decided to make it happen on the Oregon Coast. It is one of our favorite places to go and gave us a chance to see Glacier NP again, our friends Klaus and Jean Peters in NE Washington, and my sister, Judy and her husband, Bruce on the Oregon coast. And as long as we were going, we added a (my) bucket list stop at the Boeing Museum and Everett Plant Tour. On the way home we planned a stop in the Tetons, another favorite place to visit.

All of this started with planning up front, the when and where sort of thing. To get reservations where, when, and in which sites we had to get online exactly six months to the day ahead of time and make reservations. We do this all the time these days, even as much as a year or more in advance. Richard and Betty had never made reservations that far in advance or for that long. But they were up for it. The Oregon State Parks reservations meant for them getting up before 6 AM and getting online and ready to click on the button to make our selections. We had been checking each day for several days in advance to make our best guesses as to which sites would be available. We made reservations at Ft Stevens State Park near Astoria. And then a few days later for a longer stay at Nehalem Bay State Park near Manzanita, Oregon. They overlapped by one day to get the sites we wanted at Nehalem Bay. There were a few anxious moments hoping for the days and sites we wanted but it worked. We were all ready and got what we hoped for.

Ditch Digging

Between getting the driveway paved and our pickup fixed and all of our other summer projects, my dermatologist was concerned about a spot on my head, so she took a sample. They said it was squamous cell carcinoma and it needed to get removed with a Mohs procedure. So that got squeezed in. Removing a small 1/2” thing left quite a hole. When the football shaped excavation was all stitched up I felt like my ears were raised.

All of my hair covers up the hardly visible scar now.

Load ‘em Up, Roll ‘em Out

After the broken tow bar incident in April, the coach got patched up well enough for travel. The pickup truck was finished just a week before we were scheduled to leave. A new tow bar had arrived and got installed and there was some last-minute wiring and connections left to get done on the pickup. It all got done in time.

We loaded up the coach and made ready for the trip west. It was more like a road trip than we have done for some time. We needed a wide range of clothes for different weather. Food choices for sharing. We were ready and we left.

Glacier NP

We headed off across North Dakota.

Good grief, it was hot. The last time we crossed ND it was 116°. North Dakota is almost as far North as you can get in the continental US, how come it is so hot? We ran the generator and all of the air conditioning. We stopped in a tiny city park in Buffalo in far eastern North Dakota and then in Medora, just about as far west as you can get in North Dakota. We have driven across South Dakota too at other times. Somehow crossing North Dakota seems to be a more interesting drive. And if it is hot in North Dakota, it is hot in South Dakota.

One more stop in Columbus, MT, and then to Wye, MT just south of Flathead Lake. The Eastern half of Montana was hot too.

Maggie helped with navigation. Jim and Mary’s RV Park was quite nice with lots of flowers, trees, and green grass.

Then North along Flathead Lake to the west side of Glacier NP to Mountain Meadow RV Park, about 8 miles west of Glacier NP. We were looking for a spot in the park but sites to fit even our smaller 36 ft motorhome were limited. And our friend Klaus Peters was driving over to meet us for a couple of days so we stayed just outside of the park.

We were surprised to find out that to get into Glacier NP you needed a daily pass for your car and everyone in it. These passes were only available on the night before you wanted to get in after 7 PM and only online and only good for one day. The last time we were in Glacier (1980) there was no such thing as “online” just “in-line”.

We wanted to drive the Going to the Sun Road, have lunch at McDonald Lodge, and visit the Many Glacier area.

We got a pass and drove over the Going to the Sun Road. It was crowded. That is why the daily passes. We stopped at a couple of turn outs for a look.

Klaus took a classy family portrait.

He took many, the scenery was spectacular.

The U-shaped valleys were carved by glaciers. When we were here in 1980 there were many more glaciers than there are today. And those left are much, much smaller.

Some people crossed the Road to the Sun the hard way. Whew!

Pretty interesting things to see in every direction.

We were going to stop at Logan Pass, the high point of the Road to the Sun but the parking lot was full and there was a long line of cars waiting to get in. We continued to East Glacier for a bathroom break and a cup of coffee. We wanted to go back into the park at Many Glacier but we were unable to get a one-day pass for that entrance. So we reversed course and went East to West on the Road to the Sun.

On the way back we stopped at Lake McDonald Lodge for a late lunch. It was closed for a special event. Best laid plans you know. We never did get there for lunch.

The fleet of rebuilt red touring busses is still running and for many would be a better way to drive, just ride and look.

So we had a long day of driving and sightseeing. That evening we got a pass for the Many Glacier entrance and had a nice dinner with Klaus.

The next day we gathered up Maggie and drove around the bottom of the park and up to Many Glacier. The road to the Many Glacier Entrance was almost all torn up. We drove over softball-sized rocks on the way in. No need for a speed limit here, no one went more than 5 mph. The Park Ranger at the entrance station said that the entire mountainside was slowly sliding downhill, there was no stopping it. The fix was going to be a very long elevated roadway above the moving rock. Someday.

We got to Many Glacier Lodge, did some exploring and had a nice lunch.

We drove down to the campground where we stayed in 1980. It was a nice campground, we chatted with the campground host who was from Wisconsin. It didn’t look like what we remembered. Actually, we didn’t remember much at all.

We could see remnants of the Angel Glacier. I hiked up there in 1980. Not much left now. But we did remember the scenery and mountains in the Many Glacier area are some of the best in the park.

By the time we got home it was well over a 100 mile day. But a good one.

We were glad to go back to Glacier NP if for no other reason than to see what was left. It was surprising how crowded it was, how they had to limit the number of incoming vehicles each day, and how that changed the experience of the visit. We have heard that other very popular parks are on the verge of implementing similar plans to protect the parks from overuse. If you have been to Yellowstone in the summer recently you can see the overcrowding, too much traffic, and the impact on the park itself.

NE Washington

We headed west into Idaho and then towards the most NE corner of Washington. Right near where the Columbia River comes into Washington from Canada to visit Klaus and Jean Peters.

They have been to many corners of the world with Klaus’ Mobil Oil career. They could have ended up anywhere after they retired but chose this corner of Washington.

Their property was just land when they bought it 30 years or so ago. Since then they have built several houses, barns, and sheds. Their main house burned down and is being rebuilt. The house near the entrance to the property got sold with some land to now good neighbors. Two other houses get used to live in and for guests.

One of the houses in use today.

The new main house being rebuilt.

Three Great Pyreneese dogs and a German Shepherd. And three horses in the barn.

Jean takes care of the horses.

And they have a mountain top cabin.

And some more property with a horse ranch, a runway, and a hanger.

Klaus took us for a drive to an overlook of the Columbia River.

It was fun to visit for a few days. They seem to have lots going on all the time. We appreciate the hospitality.

North Cascades NP

Our next stop was going to be at North Cascades National Park. There was no way to get there. All possible roads were closed by wildfires. So on to Anacortes, WA on the north end of Puget Sound.

Anacortes, WA

The traffic in the Seattle area is crazy. We got to I5 near Everett and spent 3 hours on a 1-hour trip to Anacortes.

We stayed 3 nights in 2 spots in the county campground. Both sites were in the woods, very close quarters, winding, hilly roads, and tight turns.

We know several folks who have spent the summer in Anacortes. It is a nice place but I don’t think they were staying in the county park. There are a few private RV parks nearby and a new one just opening up on the edge of town on the water. It would be nice to go back, maybe explore the area more, maybe stay on the other side of Puget Sound on the south end. That’s a whole other trip.

Southbound

Our next stop was Fort Stevens State Park in Oregon near Astoria. Apple Maps suggested it would take about 4 hours and 30 minutes. It did not figure in Seattle traffic. It was almost 8 hours.

Richard and Betty were delayed for a few days so we had to entertain ourselves. That didn’t take long. Klaus had mentioned he was looking for a Mercedes Benz-based camper. My sister and her husband had a Leisure Travel Van that they wanted to sell. I gave them phone numbers to let them talk directly. My sister and her husband were at their beach house near Nehalem Bay an hour south of Ft Stevens. The camper was in Portland 2 1/2 hours from Ft Stevens.

The talking was done, a deal was close, and Klaus wanted me to look at the camper and report.

My sister’s husband Bruce picked me up in Ft Stevens and we drove to Portland. I did an amateur-level inspection, best I could do, took it for a test drive, took pictures, and thought it looked pretty good.

I reported to Klaus what I had seen. There were a couple of things to fix which Bruce arranged to get done. Klaus drove to Portland the next week in his Jeep and completed the deal. He hooked up his Jeep and towed it home behind the Leisure Travel Van the next day. Everyone was happy.

This is getting long, I will finish the Out West Trip in the next post.

More Later, Much Love

Susan, Maggie, and Roger